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On May 2, Air Products announced that it is halting new spending on its $4.5 billion blue hydrogen project in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Earthworks is fighting alongside locals in south Louisiana to stop the project from being built because of pollution, noise, traffic, and other unjust impacts.
While this decision underscores the growing resistance from communities to carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and fossil fuel expansion under the guise of climate action, it does not mean the project is over.
We sat down with Kaitlyn Joshua, Earthworks’ Louisiana Gulf Coast Campaigner, to learn what’s next.
What does this pause in the Blue Hydrogen project mean to the communities in Ascension Parish and you personally?
The blue hydrogen plant being paused in Sorrento, a community in Ascension Parish in south Louisiana, means a lot to a lot of people, especially myself personally, for a lot of different reasons.
Essentially, this particular halt of this project means that the work that we’ve been doing for years has merit, it has value, the grassroots organizing that we’ve been doing in these communities really does work.
And most importantly it does mean that these industries are hearing our plea and understanding that folks are concerned about the impacts of carbon capture and storage and what CO2 pipelines could mean for the communities that they love, for the people that they love, for the kids that attend the schools, and for the neighborhoods that exist near these proposed pipelines.
Most importantly it does mean that these industries are hearing our plea and understanding that folks are concerned about the impacts of carbon capture and storage and what CO2 pipelines could mean for the communities that they love…
Why should people care about blue hydrogen and carbon capture?
I think that the reason why I’m so just committed to helping people understand why they should care about this particular technology is because it’s something that doesn’t work. It’s something that is kind of taking the focus off of something that could work and essentially put a place like Louisiana in a position to be able to address the climate crisis as we are seeing more aggressive hurricanes every single year, we’re seeing higher temperatures, more extreme weather.
We used to not get tornado watches nearly as much as uh as much as we do now, and that’s something that’s extremely alarming and we need to be sounding the alarm — for lack of a better term — and helping industry understand that they play a major role in these climate crisis pieces and if we want to kinda make any type of change in this particular arena, then we’re definitely gonna have to work together to try and solve it instead of constantly coming up with fake solutions or false solutions.
What’s the real impact on frontline communities?
Frontline communities stand to gain the least when it comes to carbon capture and storage.
I know that the communities that I organize enjoy beautiful waterways and bodies of water across the state of Louisiana where we fish in, that we boat in. A lot of people have beautiful residential homes and retirement homes situated on these lakes and waterways and those would be completely dilapidated as a result of carbon capture storage. Literally — pipelines being constructed in the middle of these different bodies of water across the state.
So what I’m really noticing in this moment, and I think a lot of people can agree with this, is that it’s not a white, Black, Democrat, Republican issue. It is literally everybody’s issue at this point when it comes to CO2 build out across the state of Louisiana. At this point everyone is becoming a frontline community.
We literally couldn’t have both anymore and I think what’s so sad about that is we’ve really done the work in south Louisiana to try to revitalize a lot of these different lakes and rivers so that people can enjoy them, so fishermen can continue their livelihoods, and that would be jeopardized as a result of CO2 pipelines being constructed, wells being drilled miles and miles underneath the lake and to what end? Right.
And I think the moment that you allow one facility to take this on you’re allowing hundreds of facilities to take this on as Louisiana has already been coined as a breeding ground for CO2 pipelines.
And that’s not just in south Louisiana unfortunately. We’re seeing that happen in central and making its way up to north Louisiana as well.
So what I’m really noticing in this moment, and I think a lot of people can agree with this, is that it’s not a white, Black, Democrat, Republican issue. It is literally everybody’s issue at this point when it comes to CO2 build out across the state of Louisiana. At this point everyone is becoming a frontline community. And I think that’s kind of in a weird way the beauty of us kind of coming together around this one particular issue that we have in common and being able to come up with creative ways to push back on it.
You’ve been organizing on the ground for years—can you describe what that looks like and how community voices shaped this moment?
I’ve been organizing on the ground for a few years now and can describe a little bit what that looks like and how community voices have shaped this moment. And it’s been a delicate dance, if you will.
First, I’ll start by saying Earthworks supported on the lake side, so in particular around the Air Products blue hydrogen facility. That fight started on the Lake Mareupas side which is situated in Tangipahoa and Livingston Parish which is southeast Louisiana and essentially a very affluent part of the district, if you will, and typically very conservative, if you will, and a lot of time a lot of these folks don’t necessarily have to deal with an industrial build out or petrochemical build out as it is, and this was their first time ever fighting industry. You wouldn’t necessarily find them as — they’re definitely unsuspecting allies for sure.
Lake Maurepas to be exact, to be specific, was the main kind of common denominator if you will around organizing on the lake side and we had a um term or like a campaign, if you will, that was “Save the Lake” that Earthworks was really instrumental on helping with and really excited to support the folks within Lake Maurepas Preservation Society, which started out about three years ago.
The momentum kind of built two years ago around legislative session but also at the local level where the lake side folks were able to pass resolutions on the local level in Livingston Parish, Tangipahoa, and I believe one more. Where basically, local governing bodies, we have city councils and Parish councils, who pass resolutions saying they did not want Air Products to come into Lake Maurepas, destroy it.
As I already alluded to earlier, Lake Maurepas took years or advocates took years to revitalize and constantly try to advocate on behalf of the lake which led it to becoming a wildlife management center officially. And so that fight was very interesting.
It was very much like, if it can be quite candid, a lot of white folks just, you know, advocating on behalf of the lake and, you know, us, you know, people of color, we have a very diverse group of folks organizing with Earthworks, supporting that work and we had to, you know, be very cautious in the way that we were organizing as we didn’t wanna kinda overlay the plan that we’ve used in the agenda and the lens of which we’ve organized is what I’m trying to say for the last few years. In certain other parts of the state we couldn’t just kind of, you know, use that same blueprint right over to Livingston and Tangipahoa, we had to kind of take the lead of the folks in that area, so that was a very unique thing.
All in all, it worked out. We’re still in community, still building with the folks on the lake side, and now that we’re on the Ascension Parish side, also organizing in St. James and St. John.
Frontline communities stand to gain the least when it comes to carbon capture and storage.
And to be clear, St. James and St. John are the parishes that would bear the brunt of the CO2 pipeline construction. Ascension Parish is where the facility is situated, where the official announcement has happened from Air Products, where they have decided to halt construction of the CO2 carbon capture facility in Sorrento-Darrow area.
And so now that we are organizing this side, it’s also very interesting because it’s a mix of Black and Brown, white folks that are also pretty well off that typically enjoy, you know, a very luxurious lifestyle for the most part. Their kids go to really good schools, a great deal of them are already a part of industry but don’t necessarily buy into carbon caption storage and what that is and what that means and a lot of them are very well aware, very educated on the fact that carbon capture and sequestration has not worked anywhere in the world and they’re not bought into it right and Air Products has not sold them on the technology.
And so for them, it is the pushback on; I don’t want CO2 pipelines constructed near my home, what does this do to my property values, what does this technology potentially do, or what does a pipeline rupture or leak look like near the school that my kids attend. Right
So the conversations are a little different, but no matter what, those different narratives have certainly shaped the feedback and the responses and the public comments that we’ve dispersed throughout the different public hearings that we’ve been able to participate in in the last few years, whether in Baton Rouge at the primacy hearings or in Ascension Parish, or in St. John, St. James, or Livingston on the lakeside. And it’s been very interesting and really exciting to see people’s different world views on how they take on this CO2 pipeline facility.
Some folks might see this pause as a win and think the fight is over. What would you say to them?
So yeah, some folks might see this pause as a win, and in a way it is. I do want to say that it is a win, you can celebrate this moment, right. We know that delay is certainly an opportunity to celebrate. It’s certainly something to kind of take in and acknowledge that, you know, the work that we’re all doing in community together matters and they are taking note.
And most importantly, financiers, and people that look to invest in the project are saying oh wow, the community is not bought into this particular project, they’re not bought into any CCS project as we’re seeing, and we need to really again like kind of pull back the curtains see you know what’s really going on and most importantly — look at the viability of the technology to see if this is a good investment. I think that is really a conversation at a lot of these meetings that are happening across the world, across the country.
But I want to be clear: the fight is certainly not over, and even on a community call that we had a couple nights ago in Ascension Parish, we were very clear in our message that we still have to move with urgency.
We still have to make sure that folks are very well poised to be able to have those conversations with their elected officials, be able to, you know, participate in different public hearings coming up whether it be for the air permit going forward or the water permit that the Air Products facility has applied for, or the announcement that should be coming out any day now — we still have to be locked and loaded, right?
We still have to be ready to be able to participate as much as possible as if nothing has ever changed. So what I would say to folks is yes, while it is important to acknowledge in this moment that they are looking at our momentum, they are looking at the work that we’re doing, that does not mean we stop — if anything we dig in a little bit deeper.
We certainly need resources, right, to be able to do this work and it’s important to stress that. And I want to be clear and transparent with that ask, because any time someone donates, whether that’s their time or their money, we are able to really engage more individuals, contact more people within the district, get them involved in our community meetings, in our community outreach, and most importantly — make them feel like they’re part of the team.
What would you say to someone who is watching and wants to help?
I would certainly say please donate to anyone that is watching.
We certainly need resources, right, to be able to do this work, and it’s important to stress that. And I want to be clear and transparent with that ask, because any time someone donates, whether that’s their time or their money, we are able to really engage more individuals, contact more people within the district, get them involved in our community meetings, in our community outreach, and most importantly — make them feel like they’re part of the team.
Donate to Help Fight the Blue Hydrogen Project in Louisiana
Get them involved at the state capital level, with the governing bodies at the local level… it’s just really important to make sure that we are engaging people 365, not just when there’s a public hearing or something to be activated for.
Within that also though, definitely want to mention that we still have our monthly meetings in person and online. We kind of have gone back to the hybrid model, which we’re really excited about post-COVID. We know that folks are eager to feel in touch, to feel like they’re back in community with folks, and so we will be going really strong this summer with making sure that we’re doing as many in person events and in person opportunities for people to get involved as we have before COVID kind of brought us online and so, yes.
Your donations, your energy, your time certainly does go a long way when trying to engage more people within our fights, whether on the lakeside or the Ascension Parish side. As I have alluded to before, this project may be delayed but it is not over, and we have to keep up the energy to make sure that we can do what we can to make sure that we ultimately stop it.
